The Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council
(FFIEC) today issued guidance to assist financial institutions with customer
communications on the Year 2000. Customer communication is critical to
Year 2000 efforts and the FFIEC has encouraged financial institutions
to provide clear and accurate information and responses to questions and
concerns raised by customers about the Year 2000. Today's issuance supplements
FFIEC guidance issued in May 1998 on Year 2000
customer awareness programs.

The Year 2000 Customer Communications Outline addresses
key elements that a financial institution may wish to incorporate into
its customer communication statements.

Financial institutions can address customer expectations
by underscoring that maintaining customer confidence in the financial
services system -- now and after the Year 2000 -- is a top priority of
the institution and its senior management. It should be made clear to
customers what the financial institution is doing to ensure that customers
have access to their money and continue to receive accurate account information.
The FFIEC also suggests that institutions may want to point out that the
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the National Credit Union Share
Insurance Fund have issued Year 2000 notices to remind consumers that
the Year 2000 date change will not affect their $100,000 deposit insurance
coverage.

A financial institution can describe its Year 2000
efforts, including a description of the step-by-step process the institution
is following to fix and test its systems, which may be outlined using
the five phases of FFIEC guidance on the Year 2000. This description can
include a discussion of the progress the institution is making, and a
review of the status of Year 2000 remediation efforts.

The goal of today's guidance is to assist financial
institutions in their Year 2000 customer communication efforts, an aspect
of Year 2000 preparation that will become increasingly important as the
date change approaches. The FFIEC suggests financial institutions train
tellers and other front-line personnel to provide information and respond
to customer inquiries, provide informational brochures or other written
disclosures in monthly or quarterly statements, establish toll-free hot
lines for customer inquiries, hold educational seminars, and develop Year
2000 Web sites.

Today's guidance and related information on Year
2000 issues are available on the Internet at http://www.ffiec.gov.

Maintained by the FFIEC. For suggestions regarding this site, Contact Us.
Last Modified: 01/21/2015 10:45 AM